While the prime minister was in town, he opted to take a pass on Question Period today, as did a couple of other leaders. Andrew Scheer led off, mini-lectern on desk, and he led off by praising overinflated praise for Teck Frontier, and he wanted to know how the PM personally felt about the “cancellation,” which was actually a withdrawal. Chrystia Freeland responded by stating that it was a difficult decision for the company, before listing the projects they support and have been getting built. Scheer accused the prime minister of not having the strength to stare down radical activists, to which Freeland that reconciling climate action and resource projects is challenging and not helped by extreme rhetoric. Scheer breathily accused the government of sitting on Teck’s approval since July, to which Freeland took exception to the rhetoric, and stated that the country needed to find a path forward on getting projects built while combatting climate change, and it was a complex task. Alain Rayes took over in French to decry Trudeau’s lack of leadership, and demanded the rail blockades be ended, to which Freeland read that Trudeau showed leadership when he said that the injunctions needed to upheld before mentioning that Carolyn Bennett was on the ground meeting with the hereditary chiefs. Rayes demanded a date for all of the blockades would be down, to which Freeland reiterated her response. Alain Therrien led off for the Bloc, and accused the lack of leadership from the PM for creating the rail blockades in Quebec, for which Freeland underscored that they were all working together to combat the challenges, and thanked the Bloc for their constructive suggestions on the New NAFTA. Therrien tried to “I told you so” on the meetings with the Wet’suwet’en, to which Freeland repeated that Trudeau showed significant leadership and That Bennett was on the ground. Jagmeet Singh was up for the Bloc, and demanded that the prime minister personally meet with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs, to which Freeland somewhat didactically stated that this was a BC problem, and the government was working closely with them. Singh listed dates Trudeau met with corporate lobbyists but not the hereditary chiefs, to which Freeland stated that the PM has worked harder and more sincerely toward reconciliation than any prime minister in history, before touting Bennett’s meeting.

Round two, and David Yurdiga haltingly demanded they government let them create jobs in Alberta (Wilkinson: The letter from Teck’s CEO demonstrated the need for levels of government to work together to fight climate change), James Cumming trolled for support for his private member’s bill to repeal the old Bill C-48 (Garneau: We are proud of our oceans protection plan to make our marine shipping safer), Gérard Deltell wanted more western oil flowing to Quebec (O’Regan: We are committed to working with Alberta to ensure the right projects go ahead), Kerry-Lynne Findlay railed about the Teck withdrawal (Wilkinson: Here is the Calgary Chamber of Commerce quote on the need for climate action), Chris Warkentin railed about national unity (Freeland: We are aware of the hardships in Alberta and you shouldn’t play with national unity), and Mike Lake demanded a coherent federal plan right away (O’Regan: We have to develop a path to Net Zero with the provinces). Kristina Michaud stated that oil companies were greener than the government and raised the costs of TMX (Wilkinson: We have taken significant action on climate change, and will implement a Net Zero plan), and Monique Pauzé decried TMX as not meeting the government’s climate goals (Wilkinson: Here are actions we have taken, and money generated from TMX will fund a clean transition). Pierre Paul-Hus, Todd Doherty and Matt Jeneroux worried about COVID-19 becoming a pandemic (Fisher: We need to be prepared, and we have preparedness plans in the event of a pandemic; Our public health officials are updating their advice for travellers). Jenny Kwan worried about the Canadians in Iran during the COVID-19 outbreak (Champagne: We are providing consular services where we can), and Don Davis worried about the the guidelines for protection against COVID-19 (Fisher: I want to take a moment to thank our healthcare professionals, and we have recently released interim protocols).

The mythologising about the supposed benefits of the Teck Frontier project in spite of all facts to the contrary continues unabated today. #QP

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) February 27, 2020

Round three saw questions on the rail blockades (Garneau: We are working day and night to solve this problem as quickly as possible; Blair: We remain committed to the hard work of negotiation and solving the underlying problems), the fourth anniversary of the Phoenix pay system (Anand: We know the stress these problems cause to public servants and we are determined to fix the problems; Duclos: No RCMP employees will migrate to Phoenix if there is any risk), federal loans for farmers (Bibeau: We have improved the programme, and are in close contact with the administrator, and I will consider the request when I receive it), the fighter jet procurement (Anand: We have been strong and consistent in our commitment to purchasing 88 new jets, and you guys didn’t procure any either), first-time home buyers in Toronto (Hussen: We introduced programmes to increasing housing stock, and introduced the first-time home buyer’s incentive), reducing the amount of forest available for harvest (Wilkinson: We were proud to meet our protected areas targets, and we worked with all sectors and provinces), a plea for pharmacare (Fisher: We will look at your bill), access to mental health services (Fraser: We committed to improve access to primary care).

Overall, it was a slightly rowdy day, and I was quite surprised that Bill Blair got in the quip of the day, where in response to a question that snidely referred to Trudeau’s hope for dialogue and saying that “hope is not a management tool,” Blair stated that “I’m sorry that the party opposite is hopeless,” which was both clever and unexpected from Blair of all people. So there was that. The rest of the day was fairly derivative of the previous few days, and we didn’t really hear anything new from the government, nor were was there any particular climbdown from the rhetorical barricades that the Conservatives have committed themselves to, though the demands for a date by which all blockades would be down “for good” was particularly odd, given that last I checked, the PM is not psychic, he doesn’t control how these protesters behave, nor does he direct the police in terms of clearing them. I’m sure that they believe there is some kind of masculine “strength” is setting firm dates and timelines with an implied “or else” to go with it, but that would only exacerbate the situation, and could find them getting worse. But hey, it wouldn’t be “weak and feckless,” would it? Next week is a constituency week, so we’ll get a break from it at least.

Sartorially speaking, snaps go out to Seamus O’Regan for a tailored navy suit with a crisp white shirt and pocket square with a dark blue tie, and to Monique Pauzé for a lapel-less black jacket over a dark red top. Style citations go out to Marie-Claude Bibeau for a dusky rose jacket with large florals over a dark turquoise top and black slacks, and to Earl Dreeshan for an oversized black suit with a grey shirt and a blue striped tie. Dishonourable mention goes out to Deb Schulte for a yellow jacket with a black top and slacks, and to Tamara Jansen for a yellow jacket over a black dress with florals.